In Cognitio
by JintoR
Summary: Thefts of psychic equipment draws professional psychonaut Razputin in to investigate at Lili Zanotto's boarding school. What's going on at Demure Academy?
1. Reorientation

**Title: In Cognitio**

**Author:** Jintor

**Summary:** Thefts of psychic equipment have begun occuring around the exclusive boarding school of Demure Academy. Lili Zanatto is returning for another boring year of boarding school at Demure, but she - and the rest of her friends - are caught up in the action when Razputin, professional psychonaut, is dispatched to find out what's _really_ going on under the school's snooty exterior...

**Author Notes: **Demure Academy, Angus, Lester, Tessa and Zoe are all from Atrophy-Conception's _Always the Same_ fanfiction, and I thank her for letting me use her characters and settings. The Psychonauts and most related materials come from DoubleFine, who I don't want to sue me but I do want to make awesome games.

* * *

No eyes glowed red in the darkness, no cape swirled dramatically through the night. The wind blew silently through the dark and empty streets, carrying ahead of the particular debris of civilisations. 

A door swung slowly open. Empty air passed through the doorway, before it slowly swung shut once more. A clicking noise snapped through the air as the door shut and locked itself.

_It had been so simple! He had been right, he was always right. They never should have doubted him, not even for a second. It had all been true! Everything, every single bit, from the way you felt to how you used it... it was better than drugs, and much safer, too... and it was **powerful...**_

XXX

Lili Zanotto emerged out of the back seat, glancing up at the massive ornamentation on the front of the building, clearly made to impress and awe. In fact it looked rather like a fancy biscuit, crumbling and brown. Somebody – another one of Dad's nameless chauffers – placed her bag besides her. The gravel crunched loudly as he walked slowly back to the car.

The vehicle vanished up the road as she dragged the bag through the front gates of the massive estate, the words _Demure Academy_ inscribed above the gates. She hated the school with a passion. It combined rich snobs who knew nothing and the boarding school education-system to create slightly less rich snobs who now thought they knew everything.

The bag tugged at her arm, and she briefly contemplated hurling it along with her mind. It sure wasn't going to get any exercise here. Unfortunately her father had long ago forbidden her to use any of her more obvious psychic powers outside of training and strongly discouraged any use of her talents at all.

She was being watched, though, she knew it. _Normal_ people knew when they were being watched. Psychics _knew_ when they were being watched. The fact that there were students everywhere was beside the point; the feeling was that someone was watching, specifically, watching her (1). Her fingers rose to her temples as she concentrated on tracing the mind. It was… watching… with… more than just eyesight? The shape of the mind was human, but the… way it was organized was… strange. And then-

-suddenly-

-for a fleeting second-

-she was being looked back at-

-and the mind was gone. The sudden shock at the sudden disappearance of the mind caused Lili to stumble slightly, but she caught herself in time, her mind racing. It hadn't run away, the mind hadn't really _moved_ in any normal sense of the word, it had simply… disappeared. _And_ it had looked back at her as well.

Only psychics had that degree of control over their own thoughts. Most people's minds were chaotic storms, flicking from thought to thought to thought. Even the people who looked relatively calm and peaceful on the outside – to take an example, monks – hid a mind like a whirling maelstrom of activity within their skulls. But psychics…

Psychics could control their thoughts. Psychics could hide their emotional baggage, lock up their memory vaults, wield their censors the way they were meant to be wielded – as a weapon against the invaders of the mind. Psychics could make their minds into mental fortresses – if they chose to. The psychedelic disco of Psychonaut Milla Vordello's mind lay as lively, dancing testimony to the fact that not everybody liked their minds like a filing cupboard.

Lili picked up her bag again and moved onwards. She had a whole year here – again – and she could definitely find that mind again, if she wanted to. The other minds she could sense around her were nothings, arrogant and snobbish, looking down on her even if they only came up to her waist. She brushed a familiar mind, standing by the old oak tree.

"Hey, Lili…" came the nervous voice of Angus Gant. Lili nodded at him and continued up the path towards the towering white building with the hideous ornamentation. "Uh… do you want me… to, y'know, carry your bag for you, or something…?"

Lili stopped once more, and appraised Angus. He hadn't changed much over the holidays – he had grown slightly, but he was still tall, thin, and gangly, giving off the overall impression of 'nerd' or in certain parts of the school, 'target'. She glared at him for a moment, and continued up the stairs, dragging her bag behind her.

(1) This level of paranoia is normal for psychics.

XXX

Tessa Burdine was glaring into the middle distance as if she had a personal grudge against it, when a large hand knocked her headphones off.

"Hey!" she muttered, snapping into reality. The image of Lester Quartz, professional mayhem-maker, snapped into focus. He was holding up three fingers.

"Firstly, Tessa," he said, "people around us are giving us weird looks-"

"-like I don't get those everyday-"

"-secondly, your music is damaging my hearing at this distance so I'd hate to think of what it's doing to your hearing-"

"-nothing at all-"

"-and finally… don't you want to make out?" Lester wriggled his eyebrows suggestively. Tessa sighed and whacked him, hard. Lester shrugged it off, reached into the crowd surrounding them and pulled up a chair. "What? C'mon… one kiss…"

"You sound drunk," said Tessa, annoyed, "despite the fact that I know you've never touched alcohol in your life, and in any case are too stupid to work out what has alcohol in it."

"Hey, if it gets you drunk as well, then-"

"Hey guys," said Lili, dragging a chair and a bag behind her and setting it up next to Tessa. The gigantic ebb and hum of the crowd suddenly discharged Angus, flinging him sprawling to the ground. Lester helped him to his feet, once he stopped laughing riotously, and propelled him into a nearby seat.

"Thanks…" muttered Angus, a little embarrassed. He brightened up slightly. "So… how were your holidays?"

Tessa, who was untangling the mass of cords that snaked down from her headphones, shrugged. "Lazed around… saw some bands… parents declared war on each other… nothing unusual. You guys?"

"Summer camp" said Lili, looking bored. "Same one…"

Everyone frowned slightly. Everyone there knew that Lili had been going to the same summer camp since she was six…

"Uh… well…" said Angus, breaking the silence nervously. "More… ZARK stuff… conventions… that sorta thing."

"Uh-huh" said Tessa, nodding. She pointed at Lester. "What about you? Military camp, again?"

"Yep" said Lester, running his hands over his head. "Practically bald, once more… hey, listen: I found out some cool stuff at camp."

"What?" demanded Tessa, sarcastically. "Don't tell me: You learnt how to tie knots."

"Tell us, already!" said Angus, fidgeting slightly. The crowds parted slightly and Zoe Martinagrau drifted vaguely out, dragging a large, bright pink bag behind her. She said a dispirited 'Hi' and sat down… glumly.

The other four looked at her. "Are… you… OK, Zoe?" said Tessa, after a moments silence. Zoe looked up, quickly, almost guiltily. "No, no… no… it's nothing… go on, Lester…"

After another awkward silence, Lester shrugged. "An… organization, right? Or was it an institution: Well, get this: the government's got its own _mental_ institution!"

"Uh, what's so surprising about that?" said Tessa, after a moment where Lester looked around, clearly expecting some kind of praise. "They're all over the countryside. I've been there, I've seen mental institutes befor-"

"No, no, no! I mean an organization! A mental organization! For psychics!" said Lester, in a sort of hissing whisper. "The Government actually _believes_ in that spoon-bending crap! Can you believe that?"

"What?" exclaimed Angus, leaning forwards and pushing his glasses up his nose. "Of course they would take it seriously, there's been loads of documented evidence of psychic activity –"

"-it's a load of crap" said Tessa, dismissively, preparing to raise her headphones to her ears again. "There's no such thing as psychics – "

"I think the government is taking it pretty seriously for something that doesn't exist" said Angus, severely. "If they've gone and made an organization for them-"

"Yeah, I heard it was top-secret-"supplied Lester.

"Then how did you find out about it?" asked Tessa, raising an eyebrow. "If it's so secret, how did your boot-camp buddies find out about it?"

"Oh, one of the guys snuck into that 'radioactive zone' thing. Up at… what's it called? Lake-"

"Oblongata?" asked Lili, her face neutral.

"-yeah, right, and _he _saw a bunch of kids"

"-setting things on fire with their minds? Levitating?" asked Angus, eagerly. "I heard they can get into your heads, psychics – "

"-and he brought back this weird mineral thing, here, look, I traded some stuff for it…"

Lester held out his hands, palms up. On them rested a single stone arrowhead. "And it super-concentrates the mind or something, least that's what I felt-" he was saying as everyone craned for a better view. Even Zoe snapped out of her sullen mood to glance at the purple-pinkish carving.

Lili didn't bother. A single arrowhead wasn't that good a psychic amplifier, and if it started making people around here go crazy then she would be the first to know. Besides, most of the brain activity in the room was coming from the group of kids clustering around a tiny pebble of psitanium. Except…

A foreign mind reared out of the darkness. Lili clutched her hand to her forehead as a sharp, sudden mental link was established-

-_lonely-_

-and was cut, almost just a quickly. The darkness receded. The outsiders behind her were still arguing over psychics and not one of them seemed to have realized that their proof had just come and gone.

The mind hadn't been hostile, Lili decided as she sat back, one fingerless-glove clad hand still on her forehead. The sharp, stinging pain hadn't been from hostile intent, but a natural reaction from whenever someone attempted to establish a mental link with someone who wasn't ready for it. It had been, if anything…

…curious.

Around them, the lights dimmed. The crowd fell silent as the elderly principal climbed to his feet and welcomed one and all to another fine year at Demure Academy. Orientation had begun.

* * *

So, how was it? Reviews appreciated. This is my first fanfiction ever, despite being a long-time lurker here with an account, so... yeah. All characters mentioned so far are property of either Atrophy-Conception or Doublefine. 


	2. Food for Thought

**Title: In Cognitio**

**Author:** Jintor

**Summary:** Thefts of psychic equipment have begun occurring around the exclusive boarding school of Demure Academy. Lili Zanatto is returning for another boring year of boarding school at Demure, but she - and the rest of her friends - are caught up in the action when Razputin, professional psychonaut, is dispatched to find out what's _really_ going on under the school's snooty exterior...

**Author Notes: **In case you're wondering, I write most of the story whenever I have free time, and type it up whenever I have free time… at a computer. This means much of my story is written on public transport.

* * *

Lili was walking back to her shared room in a thoughtful frame of mind. Nothing interesting had happened at orientation, aside from a couple of new teachers being introduced, and… that was it, really. Demure wasn't an exciting place. She couldn't wait until the day she became a fully fledged Psychonaut and - _could spend her days working with Raz - _could get out of this crummy hellhole.

Tessa and Lester were somewhere arguing over the little Psitanium arrowhead, Zoe had drifted ahead to the room they shared (looking highly depressed) and Angus had gone to the library to print off his proof of psychic activity. The mind… or minds… that had brushed by hers were nowhere to be found.

It was the minds that interested her. She had never sensed them before in all the years she had been boarding at Demure, which meant that they were either new here or they had somehow… developed… psychic powers.

Which was _ridiculous_. You couldn't just _develop_ psychic powers. Even if they only manifested themselves later in life they were still present, they found ways of leaking out; they lurked in your subconscious waiting, metaphorically, to show off. Psychic powers were always there, for better or for worse; it was the _control_ element that was generally missing.

This train of thought derailed when she walked straight into somebody.

"Ow!"

Lili sat sprawled on the floor, rubbing her head. "Watch where you're going! That really hurt!"

"So Sorry." said the other kid. He looked Brazillian, tanned and bronzed, with dark brown hair. He offered her a hand up. "I apologize most profusely. I am new to this academy, and I am unaware as towards the location of several places. Including -" he made a gesture with his other hand - "including the boys' dormitory".

Lili took his hand. "New?"

"Yes, I am from Rio de Janeiro." he said, hauling her to her feet. He was _strong._ "What is your name, _pouco dama_?"

"Lili. Lili Zanotto."

"Lili... "he said. He looked as though he were testing the name. "Yes, it is a good name, a name like Lili."

"Your name, Mr Rio de Janeiro?" asked Lili. This boy was easy to like.

"Ricardo Cortez." he said, extending a hand yet again. Lili shook it. "I do not have the best... howyousay... command of english. But do you know where boys' dormitory is, Lili Zanotto?" he asked as she disengaged from the grip like steel. She shrugged. Why not?

XXX

Somewhere in the darkness surrounding Demure Academy, magic moved on silent feet. In this case thought, magic was a simple combination of ability and psychic skill.

A bird failed to notice as nothing passed below its perch, brushing foliage out of the way. A dog, loose in the grounds, didn't see nothing swing from tree to tree above it, branches shaking loose and leaves fluttering to the ground. A completely non floating bear failed to grab nothing with its telekinetic paws and bash it to death. (1)

The little patch of air found the gigantic wall with the hideous ornamentation that marked the border of Demure Academy, and started to climb.

(1) Although, to be fair, this was because it didn't have any telekinetic paws.

XXX

Zoe Martingrau was depressed, and the effort of trying not to let is show it made her even more depressed. The reason behind the depression was simple; she was back, again, in this squalid hellhole, and, well... that was it. You didn't need much more reason than that, around here. That was why she was in such a black mood.

Somewhere in the back of her head, she was wondering why she was depressed. She had quite happily held up for many years before this without getting horribly depressed. Her parents had said something about 'puberty' and 'adolescence' when she had called them after arriving, but really she had been fine until she had come back to Demure, but as soon as she had set foot on the grounds, well... reality had kicked in, or something very much like it, and she had looked up at another 11 months of drudgery and pure boredom.

She sighed, and continued unpacking. The masses of pink seemed slightly out of place, now...

XXX

There was a window. It was locked.

The thin air considered this. I could see no other alternative if it wanted to reach the target undetected. If it had hands, it would have raised them to its brow.

The window catch started vibrating. It shuddered and shook violently. If anybody of a psychic bent had been nearby, they would've sensed the massive concentration being invoked here, the tell-tale traces of mental muscle. But there weren't, and as the catch slid down, and the window slid up, only a breeze wavered some bushes as something - someone - that wasn't there slid inside Demure Academy.

XXX

The grip like steel, Lili discovered, was attached to a mind like steel. Ricardo hadn't really grasped the complex nonsense of the english language yet, and so made do with understandable words. But he was smart, and clever, and he knew what happened to clever and smart people, and so he played the stupid, hulking giant.

Which was _stupid_, because though he was giant he didn't hulk. He wasn't muscles all over, like Lester, nor was he wiry and fast, like Raz. He gave of a sort of aura, an aura of danger, which warned: _I can smash you through the ground, and I'm not doing it. Don't make me choose._

Lili had lifted this from a low-grade mind sweep. Ricardo probably wasn't able to pronounce some of those words in english, although it was pretty clear that he would understand what she meant if she spoke in Spanish. His mind was sharp as an arrow and probably at least three times as deadly.

"What is in," he asked, pointing, "that room over there?"

"Cafeteria" replied Lili absently. No doubt he was constructing a map in his mind. "You know? Food? Eating...?"

"Hey! Cortez!" someone shouted, along the corridor. An older kid, 15 or 16 years of age came up to them. He shot Lili a glance of pure disdain. "What are you doing with freak-girl out here? Mr. Sheil sent me-"

He stopped. Lili's icy glare was legendary at the Academy for being literally freezingand though he had heard about them he had never experienced one before. Something cold was touching his sleeve. It was a moment before he realized it was his shirt. He could _feel _the ice crystallizing before Ricardo stepped in and broke Lili's concentration.

"It is no business of yours," he growled at the haughty kid, "Who I am with. At any place, and at any time."

"Uh..." he said, little puffs of snow and ice falling from his shirt, "Mr... Mr Sheil sent me to guide you... guide you to the dorms..."

"Ah." said Ricardo, relaxing his hands from their clenched position and turning to Lili. "Goodbye for now, Lili Zanotto, and I feel we shall soon meet again." He moved off along the corridor, and was near the corner before he turned back again. "And thank you for showing me round!"

And then he was gone.

XXX

Some students in the hallways in Demure later told of how they had brushed against something that wasn't there as they walked the hallways after orientation. Others claimed of some sort of 'presence', of objects moving by themselves or acting as if they'd been bumped by someone rushing onwards, invisible. One or two swore they saw a kid who disappeared if you weren't concentrating on him.

The presence hurried along corridor after corridor, closing in on the target. The target was angry, and curious, and mad - a strange combination, if there ever was one - and one that could be used...

XXX

A mental alarm clanged silently - to the outside world, at least - in her mind. Lili reacted quickly, rushing into a deserted corridor and _concentrating_. Another psychic! She could sense it, it was using its powers right now; the mind was slightly familiar - she found the entry point, linked up to the mind -

- _there she is _-

-and was abruptly disconnected, sending her reeling. It had found and kicked her out of its' – his, yes, definitely a boy's mind - in a matter of seconds, it was a _really_ powerful mind - _it was right behind her -_

_-_ she spun around. Nothing there -

_- _invisible arms enfolded her from behind. She struggled against them. A voice whispered in her ear.

"Gotcha".

A familiar voice...

Invisible hands spun her around as Razputin Aquatto, Professional Psychonaut, dematerialized around her and drew her into a warm, comforting hug.

"I missed you..." he whispered into her ear, again. Lili just held on, and hoped she would never have to let go…


	3. Pax Mentalis

**Title: In Cognitio**

**Author:** Jintor

**Author Notes: **God damn. Apologies for the long wait, but I sorta got caught up in real life, school work, real work, Final Fantasy Tactics Advance, and Planescape: Torment. Sorry, sorry, sorry. I'll try and get the next one out as fast as possible.

* * *

Thoughts are sharable among those who have a close mental connection. This is deemed fairly obvious in the Psychic world (i.e. all of it) and is often ignored. What is also often ignored is what constitutes a close mental connection. Love and relationships are often brought up whenever psychoanalysists gather to discuss these ignored pieces of knowledge (1). Friendship and family are also mentioned, often. 

People don't think about force. And violence, and other things of that bent. Threats are sometimes more powerful than friendships.

_It arrived!_ crowed one, silently. _It's here, it's here!_

_Silence, _intoned another. _We must work patiently. Much is at stake here. And if you don't shut up, I'm going to pulverise your brain._

There was silence. Of course, this didn't really mean anything.

(1) Which isn't often, because they're ignored.

XXX

A lot had changed since Lili had last seen Raz. He was taller, for one thing. The average 14-year-old was probably slightly shorter than him. His trademark goggles were slung around his neck, a black leather jacket casually worn over a green t-shirt. And he was… warmer, for one thing…

Razputin tactfully disengaged himself from the shared hug. "I really did miss you, Lili. You know that…" he said, smiling faintly. Lili hugged him quickly, once more, and reluctantly let go.

"What are you doing here?"

"Official Psychonauts Buisness." said Razputin, taking out a piece of paper from his pack. "Look - here - "

"From the desk of Truman Zanatto..." Lili read, aloud. "Official orders... 'Operation: Pax Mentalis?'" _So the government guys and their naming systems finally got to dad, eh?_ "Thefts on the East Coast... highly sensative psychic equipment missing... government facilities infiltrated... complete psychic lockdown on surrounding area?" _Psychic lockdown?_

"All psychic power usage is being monitored in the East Coast Area," said Raz, lifting her thoughts from the front of her mind - as usual. "We can't get a trace on the unauthorised users, though. Cruller thinks something's blocking us. And I _know_ something's blocking us."

Lili glanced back down at the piece of paper in her hand. "All thefts occurred within a 30-mile radius centred on _Demure Academy_? What? Suspect thought to be using Demure Academy as a 'base'? Who could do that and hide at a boarding school?"

"Quieter, not so loud!" hissed Razputin, gesturing at the piece of paper. "Look - the psychic interference is centred around Demure. The thefts are also centred around Demure. This isn't a coincidence, ok? There's some kind of super-secret-organisation behind all this! Or a single, powerful, psychic individual. Whoever it is, they know what psychics are. They're probably one themselves. And they're hiding here, Lili, here at Demure Academy!"

"But how could - oh, wait, the psychic interference..."

"Yeah, and there's some surplus equipment as well. We think about half the stuff is being used to power the mental blockades, but the extra stuff... we don't know. They could be building Mind Bombers for all we know. We've got to get to the bottom of this, Lili. Or the world - or this part of it - may be in some serious danger."

Lili glanced at the paper again. "Uh, i don't want to sound, pedantic or anything..." she said, "but couldn't the thefts, be, well, just thefts? And not this massive world-domination theory you've constructed?"

"No, we've got to treat it as one. There's too much equipment that has been taken for us to treat this merely as theft. The uses of some of those things..." Raz shuddered. "You wouldn't want to know. Basically, it's not just Mental Radios and Brain Tumblers..."

The codename caught her eye, once more. "Uh... why Pax Mentalis?" She asked.

"Peace of Mind" said Razputin, looking a little more serious. "That is the aim, that is the mission. We want to ensure peace of mind, so we're going to find this crook and -" he cracked his knuckles - "beat seven kinds of hell out of him, preferably the personal demons kind."

"How do you know it's a 'him'?"

"We don't. They've never left so much as a karmic signature. We can't trace 'em. Might be anyone."

Lili bit her lip. "So... what part, if any, do I play in this?"

Razputin smiled, and reached into his pack. "The same one I do, temporary-Psychonaut Zanotto. Your dad authorised your temporary promotion for as long as the Psychic lockdown persists. Here." he said, handing her a badge. "Take it."

Lili took it, and looked at it thoughtfully. It hadn't been the object of her dreams - _Raz had been theshutupshutupshutuphecanreadmythoughtsshutup - _since she had been about six, but still... she was an in-ter-national secret agent. She was a _Psychonaut_.

"Uh, just one thing, Lili..."

"Yes?" she said, examining the badge from a new angle. It gleamed satisfyingly.

"Can you show me the way to the boys' dormitory?"

XXX

A lack of embarrassment is a trait which few people should go without, but most do. It is a most prized and wanted possession in all the galaxy because, really, when you don't care about what people think of you you're pretty damn close to getting what you want done, done. Embarrassment is hardwired into the human body and nobody knows why. At what point along the evolutionary process was embarrassment neccessary? Are you required to be ashamed of being caught naked in a river when a tiger leaps out of the bushes and tries to bite off your monkey tail?

In any case, few knew why embarrassment was neccessary. Those that didn't were too embarrassed to try, thus demonstrating the fundamental principle that embarrassment stops you doing anything remotely worthwhile.

Ricardo Cortez was one of those rare people who sheltered a lack of embarrassment. He did, however, harbour a lot of foresight, and a hell of a lot of cunning, and thus saw to it that nobody ever saw that he lacked or posessed any attributes that he did not want anybody else to see. His lack of embarrassment, however, was getting harder and harder to hide - it kept breaking through the false personna. It was very, very annoying.

"Hey! New Kid... whatsyername... Cortez! Get out here!' someone shouted outside - Mr Sheil, the teacher in charge of rooms and dorms and such, judging by the sound of the foghorn voice. Ricardo sighed and dropped the little screwdriver at the foot of his bed as he made his way outside.

He emerged on the other side of the doorway, blinking as his eyes adjusted to the light. A large man, standing straight and tall, suddenly appeared as his eyes managed to focus. Ricardo took a step back - you always forgot to adjust for Mr Sheil and the way he dominated the landscape, no matter what it was. Another boy, probably about 13 or 14 years old, stood next to him. Mr Sheil pushed the kid forwards.

"Mr. Cortez?" barked Mr Sheil. According to some kids in the nearer dorms, he had never learned to control his voice very well. "This is your new roommate. You got that, Cortez? Room-Mate. Sharing. Your. Room. With this kid, here. Dante, Ricardo." he added, motioning for them both to shake hands.

The other kid - Dante? - raised a leather-gloved hand out, and Ricardo reached out and shook it. Mr Sheil grinned slightly and moved towards the exit. "He got here late, and his luggage is going to be even later. You two report to my office tommorrow after breakfast; I've got to help you kids settle into this here school. Explain that to him, Dante, I don't have time right now." he growled over his shoulder.

As he reached the doorway, he glared around the room. "And the rest of you kids... listening at the doors... make them feel welcome, OK?" He cracked his knuckles. A sudden flurry of rustlings at each of the doors meant that his message had been received. The big teacher nodded once and clambered outside, leaving Ricardo and Dante staring at each other.

"Uh..." said the other kid, breaking the awkward silence. "...Which room is ours?"

"That one" grunted Ricardo, pointing a thumb at a nearby doorway marked 'XII'. He noted down the interestingly windswept hair, the pair of goggles hanging fashionably off his neck, a leather jacket, pants and gloves - all evidence of the more material kind pointed towards another rich kid sent to Demure to learn basic arithmatic and to get their social climbing done sooner. But there was something else... something in the eyes...

"Why the goggles, Dante?" he asked. The kid was already inside the room, flicking on the light switch.

"That depends." Ricardo heard him say as he sat down on an empty bed in the corner. He was flicking something up and down. "Why the screwdriver, Ricardo?"

XXX

Raz looked around the room, intrigued. It was new - to both of them, because Ricardo was new as well, according to that Sheil guy - but already shown signs of use; blue-tac and bits of posters hung from the walls. The beds and stuff were pretty clean, and the carpeted floor wasn't stained or dirty, but the room still gave off the slight impression of dampness. A couple of colourful posters - Raz couldn't read the writing - dominated the wall nearest Ricardo's bed. A little screwdriver and gizmo lay on the bed itself, looking sparkly and interesting. He reached for them, but Ricardo scooped them up before he could get anywhere near it.

"Leave my things alone, Dane," he growled "and you and your things will be left alone." He muttered something to himself as he knelt down and stuffed the gadget into a pack.

Raz shrugged. Fair enough. Other people's stuff was other people's stuff, and he wasn't picking up and psychic residue around anyhow. He dropped his pack by a bed, dumped his jacket and goggles in a pile of sorts, and vaulted onto the bed.

Bad move, he realised. The bed was as soft as...

...water.

Ricardo watched with interest as Raz leapt a full 3 feet in the air off the bed.


	4. First Day!

The sun rose.

It illuminated everything, from the morning dew on the grass to the animals now waking or sleeping or eating or something. Birds sang, the walls of Demure stood there doing what walls do, and two drivers involved in an early morning traffic accident peacefully screamed at each other and threatened to unleash their lawyers.

A tall beech tree cast a long shadow across the lawns of Demure. Underneath it, a boy and a girl sat, hand in hand, watching the sunrise. _Peace..._ thought Lili Zanotto.

So maybe she was watching nothing more amazing then something that had been seen (11 200 000 000 000 x 365) times before. So perhaps the event occurring before their eyes was naught more than a massive nuclear fireball coming into view thanks to the rotation of a massive ball of rock in space. Things were what you made of it.

She turned to Raz. "Well, time to go," she smiled down at Raz, who grinned back at her in return. "You don't want to be late for your first day."

XXXX

Tessa stared blankly over her coffee, the heat steaming upwards in a visible cloud. All around her was hustle and bustle, the clinking of cutlery on plates and bowls overlaid with the barely-controlled chaos of a cafeteria. Lester glanced up at her for a second and went back to eating, or more accurately grabbing everything in sight and stuffing it into his mouth. Angus was keeping to himself, occasionally reaching out to grab his orange juice as he sat engrossed in a tome of arcane knowledge(1)

"Is it just me," she muttered to herself, "or is that guy… somewhat… familiar?"

A tall, purplish-brown haired kid with a pair of goggles slung around his neck was heading towards them, holding a large tray of assorted foodstuffs in one hand and clasping Lili's hand in the other. Tessa's eyes widened slightly over her coffee, and immediantly watered to remind their owner what a bad move that had been.

Lester nudged her. "Hey, look who Lili dragged in" he muttered, still spooning cereal into his mouth. Tessa nodded vaguely. "I wonder why… circus kid… is here?" Lester continued through a mouthful of milk.

"Circus kids need their education too, I guess" shrugged Tessa. Zoe, appearing from nowhere in particular, put her tray down. "What's all the fuss about?" she asked, grabbing a spoon. "Oh, hey, Lili, where were you last night? We went to bed before you got in, but you were gone before we woke up? Where'd you…"

Razputin emerged from behind Lili, still balancing the breakfast tray. "First things first," he began, "It's Dante here. And secondly…"

He paused, looking around the table. Angus was still engrossed in his book, totally oblivious to what was going on at the table around him. Tessa and Lester were watching him, Zoe was apparently stuck between deciding whether to finish with the spoon in her hand or react to Raz's appearance, and Lili was trying to balance a tray without instinctively resorting to telekenisis. "…it's good to see you guys again."

(1)_True Psychic Tales, _but unfortunantly for Angus it's the crappy hardback non-fiction book instead of the kick-ass comic books featuring Sasha Nein.

XXXX

Several sets of eyes were on their table. Lili could _feel _them. Most were just people wondering who the new kid was, why he was with were with the… with the rejects, when he could be with them, you know, being _cool_, not _nerdy_ and _stupid_ and _outcast_ like _them…_

Lili shook herself (mentally and physically). If you spent too long thinking with them, you ended up thinking like them. Most people's minds worked like that, even non-psychics – although her dad had always told her that people's minds were all psychic to some degree, some moreso than others. Oleander, too had once told her that any person, if they were of a sufficient meaness, could have powered any of his Psycho-blaster Death Tanks (Lili had wondered aloud why Bobby Zilch's hadn't worked but then noticed him trailing after Chloe and given up on that train of thought).

Ah, what she wouldn't give to be surrounded by psychics right now, she thought. The ease which the use of psychic powers brought with it would be one benefit, but mostly it was just comforting to be surrounded by Psychics. Raz's presence brought a lot of comfort, but…

"Lili?" interrupted Zoe. Lili snapped out of her thoughts. "Wha? Who? Wha? Oh, Zoe. Yeah?"

"Uh… where'd you go last night?" asked Zoe, as Raz and Lester arm-wrestled, apparently to prove something, behind her. "Because, you know, you weren't in the room when I went to sleep, and you weren't there when I woke up, so I was wondering where you went, and… uh… yeah."

"Oh…" said Lili. "I was showing some new kid around the place. Not Ra- Dante. Some other kid. Ricardo? Ricardo something. Ricardo – "

"Cortez" rumbled Ricardo, who suddenly loomed out of the crowd. "I have come to collect Dante. I believe Mr. Sheil requires our presence in order to sort out some things, maybe involving classes and the like. Dante?" he said, slightly louder, to get Raz's attention.

"Hmm? Oh, hey, Ricardo! Everyone meet Ricardo." said Raz. "He's new here too." Ricardo bowed slightly, and said "The bell goes soon, Dante, and Mr. Sheil requires our presense. I think. Come, we must leave."

"Really? Well, we'd better go then. I'll see you guys later" said Raz, jumping down from the bench. He waved goodbye to them as Ricardo strode through the crowd like it didn't even exist.

"So, Lili..." said Tessa, after a few minutes. "Why is he really here?"

"Who?" asked Angus, looking up from his book.

XXXX

There was a knock at the door, and it swung slowly open. Razputin and Ricardo strode into Mr. Sheil's office and stood there, looking slightly awkward.

It looked like a bomb had gone off inside, basically. Piles of scorched paper were stacked untidily across every single avaliable surface, and some that weren't avaliable but nevertheless the effort had been made. A small patch of carpet and two chairs were the only clear places in the room that wasn't covered by the burnt masses of documents, books, miscellaneous trophies, watches, stationary, footballs (_footballs? wondered Raz_) and old videotapes. Sheil himself popped up from behind his desk after a few seconds.

"Sorry, boys, I was hunting for my coffee" he offered by way of explanation as he brushed aside a massive hill of paper to reveal a chair, which he sat back on. "So, who are you? Ah, yes, Mr. Cortez, Dante, hello. Hmmm..."

"Uh, we were told to report here. By you. Yesterday." said Raz, helpfully. Cortez just sat, facing forwards.

"Yes, yes, I know that." said Mr. Sheil irritably. "Just one second." he reached into a pile, seemingly at random, and pulled out a folder. "Ok, ok, ok..." he muttered. "Rample - Rendle - Rew - Ricardo, Cortez. Hmmm... here's your timetable." he added, handing Ricardo a small square of cardboard. "You've got Maths, first. Better go, I hear Mrs. Truman likes to eat brains if you don't get there on time. Wait one second" - he scribbled something on another miraculeously produced pice of paper - "here's a late note, you'll probably need it. Shoo!"

Ricardo shuffled out of the doorway as Mr Sheil stuck his hand back in the pile someplace. "Hrmm... Colpas - Cubran - Cuprantis - Currandle - Daniel - Daniel - Dante. Or maybe I should say... Razputin Aquatto?"

There was a slight noise, and suddenly Raz wasn't there anymore. Sheil blinked. "Hey, look, calm down. I'm your contact. Didn't Sasha tell you? Or Milla? Yeesh, they could've at least told you your girlfriend has a bodyguard."

As Razputin faded back slowly into view, hand still raised threateningly to his temple, Sheil grinned slightly. "What?" asked Raz. "Bodyguard? Why didn't Lili tell me?"

"Probably because she doesn't know" said Sheil, reaching down into a drawer and rummaging. "I've been guarded her on Truman's orders for about 5 years now, and she's never suspected a thing. I doubt anybody can shield their minds as well as I can... but, anyway. Back to buisness. I've got a dossier on your a mile thick. World's Youngest official Psychonaut, huh? And that stuff you pulled with Oleander... amazing."

"Thanks... I guess." said Raz. "But, seriously. What's going on here?"

"Ah... look. It's probably easier if i just show you, ok? I'm not good with words." said Sheil, pulling out a small psycho-portal, and fitting it to his head. "Now, we'd better lock the door first, eh? Don't want people to come in here and find you staring at me with a door stuck to my head. That would shock people. Ready?"

"Ready" said Raz, pulling the goggles over his eyes. Familiar music and a guitar riff played in his head. The psychoportal opened, and Razputin was sucked forwards into a world of swirling paper.

* * *

THERE. Jesus. It's harder writing than you'd think --. I keep thinking I shouldn't have used Raz, because I can't write Raz. I can't! I kept trying to think of snappy dialogue and I keep coming up with boring, cliched stuff. Oh well. I'm going to have fun with Sheil's awesome junkpile of a mind >> 


End file.
